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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941399">Broken Limbs And Mending Hearts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430'>kitkatt0430</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Olivarry Bingo 2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(it's all about the pining), Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Vigilantes, Barry's a dog walker putting himself through grad school, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Oliver has a dog, Oliver let's Barry use his wifi, a cute dog of course, for study purposes, obviously not so that Oliver can quietly pine over Barry or anything like that, which was Thea's idea after Ollie was rescued from the island</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:41:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,719</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Oliver's leg is broken, he has to hire a dog walker to take care of the lab-pointer mix his sister got him after he was rescued from being marooned on a deserted island for over a year.  Enter Barry Allen, a struggling college student who needs the extra cash for his expenses and is far too adorable for words.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barry Allen/Oliver Queen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Olivarry Bingo 2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Broken Limbs And Mending Hearts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For my Olivarry Bingo Card: I2 - Dog Walker</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There's a loud knock at the front door and Oliver groaned softly as he grabbed his crutches.  He'd been knocked off his bike earlier that week, breaking his leg in the process.  With the cast on for the next four to eight weeks, plus however long it took for him to complete his physical therapy afterwards, meant that it was going to be a while before he was back to walking normally.</p><p>Spice - Oliver's four year old black lab and pointer mix - couldn't wait that long.  She needed regular walks to burn energy and keep in shape.  Which was hopefully the reason for the person at Oliver's door.</p><p>He'd reached out to a local dog walking service and been promised they'd send their most well liked dog walker to meet him today.  A guy named Barry Allen.  The service had texted Oliver a picture of the walker with a short information blurb, meant to make it a little easier to trust his dog to a complete stranger no doubt.  Barry did sound like an interesting person, though.  Twenty-two and on the cusp of completing a Masters in Forensic Science, Barry Allen looked cute and friendly.  But Oliver supposed he'd see for himself in a few minutes.</p><p>Reaching the door, Oliver carefully reached for the door handle - trying not to drop one of his crutches yet again, it was a pain to pick back up when that happened - and unlocked it before swinging the front door open.  And, indeed, there stood Barry Allen.</p><p>"Hi, are you Oliver Queen?"</p><p>Nodding, he said, "that's right.  And you'd be Barry Allen."</p><p>Barry grinned and nodded.  "That's me.  It's nice to meet you Mr. Queen.  Umm... would you rather not shake hands or..."</p><p>"I'd rather not.  I'm not as talented with these as I'd like yet," Oliver said, glancing at his crutches.  "And, please, call me Oliver.  Come on in," he added, shuffling awkwardly to the side.  "Spice is out back, if you're ready to meet her."</p><p>"Sure thing.  And, um, you can call me Barry."  He came inside, shutting the door behind him.  "Feel free to ask me whatever you'd like.  I'm an open book.  Which way to the backyard?"</p><p>"This way," Oliver told him, hobbling towards the kitchen.  "I keep her halter and leash in here," he said, tapping a drawer underneath the kitchen counter beside the backdoor once they got there.  "And the poop bags."</p><p>Barry nodded.  "She's a black lab and pointer mix, right?"</p><p>"That's right."  Oliver grinned as his girl trotted up to the door when she saw him standing there.  "Here she is."</p><p>"Oh she's darling," Barry breathed out with a grin. "Anything I should know first?  Her dossier said she's friendly and likes new people, playing fetch with tennis balls and frisbees, and Beggin' Strips for treats."</p><p>"Sounds like you gave it a good read," Oliver observed.  "She's pretty calm and well mannered and very much loves making new friends.  I can't really think of anything that would have been left out of the worksheet I wrote up."</p><p>"Alright then, shall we see if she likes me?"  Barry grinned when Oliver nodded and he let himself out into the yard, holding the door open for Oliver behind him.  "Well hello there," he greeted as Spice pranced around to sniff at him - butt first of course, before circling around and sneezing at him.  Then she bounced off, grabbing a tennis ball from the basket kept off to the side, and racing back over to thrust the ball against Barry's hip.  "Oh, you'd like to play?  I can do that," he told her, taking the ball away and then throwing it across the yard.  Spice bounded off happily after it.</p><p>Oliver led Barry over to his outdoor furniture and settled carefully into one of the chairs in the dining set.  The umbrella was open - he'd forgotten to ask Thea to close it for him, so it'd been open since the day before his accident - and it put him in the shade.  Barry joined him, pulling out a notebook.  </p><p>"Here's what my work and class schedule looks like right now.  So if you want to go with me as her primary walker, then I should be able to do most days at three in the afternoon.  Tuesdays have to be two instead and I can't do Thursdays at all."</p><p>Oliver nodded, looking at the schedule.  "When do you find time to study... oh, never mind."  Barry had marked off time in the late afternoons and evenings that simply read as unavailable.  "Study time, I'm guessing?" he asked, tapping that part.</p><p>Barry nodded, looking a touch wary.</p><p>"Good.  I didn't end up getting a Masters myself, but Tommy did and he just about burnt himself out doing it.  And that was Business, not Forensic Science."  Oliver had watched his friend turn into a zombie near the end of it, though Tommy had craved coffee instead of brains.</p><p>"Thankfully come December I will be completely done.  No more school.  Until I forget how stressful it is and go back for my PhD," Barry joked.</p><p>Oliver chuckled while Barry tossed the ball for Spice again.</p><p>"What routes do you normally take her walking on?" Barry asked, grinning when Spice turned to look at him suspiciously.  "Oh, does she know what 'walk' means?" he asked, emphasizing the word.</p><p>Tennis ball forgotten, Spice bounded back over to Barry and shoved her face under his hand hopefully.  Obediently, Barry gave her scritches.  </p><p>"Yup, she loves that word," Oliver said.  "Here," he handed over the phone," there's a park just down the road.  There's a forested area with lots of meandering walking and biking trails in there.  They keep maps by the entrances that are a little easier to read than phone screens.  We usually do either the red trail or two laps around the blue trail.  Though when I'm training up for a marathon we'll work our way through the purple trail line, which is basically all the trails.  Never actually made it all the way through, but... still trying anyway.  The green and pink trails are ones we'd do in the mornings sometimes, but she's just going to have to wait until I'm better for morning walks again."</p><p>Spice had finally come over to Oliver to demand pats from him.  They kept saying her favorite word - very rude of them, Oliver was sure.</p><p>After a little back and forth, Oliver and Barry decided on the schedule.  He'd come Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday, taking what was approximately a forty-five minute walk.  They'd also discussed Oliver's recovery time a little, just to give Barry an idea of how long his dog walking services would be needed.</p><p>Once everything is ironed out, Barry takes Spice out on a short walk, taking her over to the park and picking up one of the maps for himself before wandering one of the shorter trails.  Spice comes back exhilarated and prancing, clearly happy to have been back out on the trails again.  Oliver's a little jealous he couldn't go with them, but... it wasn't going to be forever.  It just felt that way right now.</p><hr/><p>Barry's cute, if a little scatterbrained at times.  The second time he does the full forty-five minute walk with Spice, he comes back in a panic, having realized he hadn't emailed in his assignment yet and it's due in about in hour. </p><p>"Is there a Starbucks near here?  The essay's done, I just need to email it and it's nearly an hour from here to my apartment..." Barry was bouncing anxiously from one foot to another.</p><p>"If it's free wi-fi you're looking for, just use mine.  I don't mind," Oliver told him.  "My sister's going through a cross-stitch phase and made me one that has the password on it for my guest room.  I'll grab that while you get your laptop out of your car."</p><p>"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Barry breathed out in relief, before hurrying to do just that.  Oliver watched in amusement an then hobbled over to the guest room to grab the framed stitch-art.  It had a <em>Doctor Who</em> theme to it, with a TARDIS, Dalek, Cyberman, and a rainbow scarf at each corner around the password, which was just a meaningless string of letters and numbers.  Thea had tried to get him to change it to something he was pretty sure was from the show - he'd watch it with Thea when she visited, but he'd been less than impressed with the show's Moffat years and hadn't made the time to see if the new showrunner and lead actress were worth getting back into it on his own.</p><p>Barry lit up cheerfully at the images on the cross-stitch.  "Do you like <em>Doctor Who</em>?" he asked.</p><p>"Depends on the writer and showrunner," Oliver said.  "All of the actors I've seen so far always do amazing, no matter how bad the script might be, but it got to where I couldn't stand Moffat's style and overarching storylines and I had to tap out.  I hear the new showrunner's pretty good though."</p><p>"I've really enjoyed it so far.  And Jodie Whittaker is phenomenal," Barry said, settling onto the couch and flipping his laptop open.  "She's got some of the same energy going on as David Tenant's take on the Doctor, but lighter... less burdened feeling.  This Doctor is a lot more at peace with who she is than he was."</p><p>Oliver grinned.  "Well, I seem to have an awful lot of free time these days, so maybe it's time I finally catch up."</p><p>"Let me know if you want someone to talk about the episodes with."  Barry sounded a touch distracted now, probably making a final pass over his essay before emailing it in.  "I'm always ready to chat about <em>Doctor Who</em>."</p><p>Smiling fondly, Oliver thought he just might do that.</p><hr/><p>"Jodie Whittaker really is phenomenal," Oliver tells Barry on Saturday, having binge watched her first four episodes the night before.  </p><p>Barry beamed as he helped Spice into her harness.  "Oooh, you've been watching.  When I get back, you've got to tell me how far you've watched."</p><p>"It's going to rain soon," Oliver said, glancing out the window at the dark sky.  "It's fine if you'd rather not..."</p><p>Barry shook his head and pulled out a rain poncho for himself.  "It's not supposed to start for another hour, so we'll be back in plenty of time.  This is... just in case.  Ready to go Spice?"</p><p>She sat by the door in response, lifting a paw towards the handle.</p><p>Naturally, it starts pouring rain thirty minutes into the walk and Barry comes back soaked, the poncho torn and largely useless.</p><p>"Are you okay?" Oliver asked, dropping a few towels on the floor for Spice - who promptly started rolling all over them - and placing another one over Barry's shoulders.</p><p>"I may have been optimistic about the forecast," Barry admitted.  "I'm not looking forward to driving back in this."  Thunder punctuated Barry's statement and he began to visibly shiver, from the chill of his wet clothes.</p><p>"Stay here for now," Oliver offered.  "You can set up your laptop and your work on homework or your master's thesis or whatever from here.  And borrow some of my clothes while yours go in the dryer."</p><p>"I don't want to put you out," Barry muttered, blushing.</p><p>"It's no trouble.  Spice'll love having you stay longer and I could use the company.  That novel I'm trying to write is going nowhere."  Oliver paused a beat, then added, "we could always watch some more <em>Doctor Who</em>."</p><p>Barry laughed.  "I'll go grab my stuff from the car, then."</p><p>While Barry runs to fetch his stuff, Oliver carefully leans down to grab one of the towels to rub at Spice's fur with.  "You like him, huh girl?"  The dog sneezed at him and Oliver smiled.  "Yeah... I like him too."</p><hr/><p>Thea laughs at Oliver when he tells her about Barry.  "You've got a crush," she teases.  </p><p>"If you saw him, you wouldn't blame me in the least.  He's hot, Thea.  So hot."  Oliver sighed, scowling at the open document of his computer screen.  "I'd rather talk about him than my book, anyway."</p><p>"Still not going well?"</p><p>"No," Oliver said.  "It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I just... it's too much like writing an autobiography.  And I specifically don't want to do that."</p><p>"Well..." Thea hummed, "maybe you're trying to hard to incorporate your own experiences.  Try making it... a wish fulfillment.  What would have made those fourteen months better for you, Ollie?  Maybe a... sexy dog walker was marooned with your main character and it's really a gay romance novel."</p><p>Oliver snorted in amusement.  "I'm not going to write a fantasy fiction piece about Barry being on the island with me," he protested.</p><p>Thea laughed.  "Whatever you say.  How's your leg healing?"</p><p>"Painkillers are still my friend, but not bad," Oliver replied.  "Sara's new girlfriend Ava is a physiotherapist, so once my cast gets off I'll be seeing her a few times a week."</p><p>"Laurel's sister Sara?" Thea asked.</p><p>"That's the one," Oliver agreed, nodding absently.  "I called her about getting an appointment set up in advance with Ava.  Which she did for me, but I also had to spend half an hour listening to her conspiracy theory that Laurel's pregnant and not telling anyone yet.  Apparently Tommy was smug about something at the last Lance family dinner and Laurel didn't have any alcohol."</p><p>"Yeah, but Laurel usually doesn't have alcohol around their dad," Thea objected.</p><p>"I know.  I made the same point.  But Sara also claimed that Laurel was also turning down all caffeinated beverages too.  So if it turns out you're going to be an aunt soon, just know that Sara is already planning to provide you with stiff competition for the honor of being the 'cool aunt'."  </p><p>"I am winning that competition," Thea muttered, competitive streak having been officially revved up.  Though her tone gentled as she asked, "are you going to be okay with that, if they are having a baby.  I mean... after..."</p><p>Oliver had been marooned on an island for a little over a year when he was twenty-one.  He'd been engaged to Laurel at the time, but when he got back... she'd recently begun dating his best friend - and his sister's brother, thanks to Moira Queen's infidelities.  Both Tommy and Laurel had been apologetic about the whole thing and Laurel had tried her best to let Oliver down gently, but...</p><p>It hurt.  </p><p>"You know the funny thing is, I got on that yacht with dad because I was having second thoughts about marrying her," Oliver admitted.  He'd never really talked about this outside of therapy, but maybe Thea would understand... "I felt like our relationship wasn't really ours anymore.  Like we were getting married because that's what our parents wanted.  We started fighting about everything, but especially the wedding.  Telling ourselves that things would get better once we said our vows but... we'd have made each other miserable if we had married.  And I'd resolved to call off the engagement right before the storm hit."</p><p>Oliver ran a shaky hand through his hair.  "Except then the boat sank and dad drowned and I was stuck alone on that island and... I started romanticizing my relationship with her.  Because I needed something to cling to while I was lonely.  But when I came back..."  The Laurel in his head hadn't matched up to the real Laurel.  Which was a good thing, since the real Laurel was a thousand times better.  But it had been a massive kick in the chest too, because he'd convinced himself they'd been desperately in love when the reality was that they'd been terrible for each other.  "Fantasy just didn't hold up," he finally said roughly.  "It was kind of a relief that she'd already moved on with Tommy.  As much as it hurt, she was happy with him in a way she never was with me.  And I have moved on since then too."</p><p>"Moved on to the cute dog walker," Thea muttered softly, though still audible over the phone's speakers.</p><p>"So if there is a baby on the way, then I just hope they name me godfather," Oliver finished, ignoring Thea's interjection.  "And I really, really hope they don't expect me to change diapers.  Because I'm nope-ing out of that one.  I did not help make the little mandrake that poos, I do not change the diapers."</p><p>Thea cracked up.</p><hr/><p>Thea's advice is actually pretty good.  Discarding his current draft and starting over with the premise that there was more than one person on the island helped further divorce the story from his own experiences, giving him a good knowledge base for the story without feeling like he was writing something that was semi-autobiographical. </p><p>Being terrible at naming characters, Oliver looked up a random name generator and picked from the first ten names it output.  Thus Shane Moody became the first of the main characters with Isaac Meyer as his love interest.  Now he had to figure out the answers to questions like... did they arrive at the island at the same time?  Did they come from the same wrecked ship?  Did anyone else get marooned with them?  Any previous inhabitants of the island?</p><p>He supposed it depended on the shape his plot took, which meant determining an entirely new plot too.  Which he was busy tearing his hair out trying to outline when Barry next arrived for Spice.</p><p>"If I bribe you with dinner, can you stick around afterwards and play sounding board for my plot ideas?" Oliver asked Barry, a touch desperately.  "My sister gave me an idea for getting past my writer's block but now I have too many ideas and I need help figuring out which ones suck."</p><p>"I'm a college student," Barry informed Oliver solemnly, a smile tugging at his lips.  "I can always be bribed with dinner."</p><hr/><p>It becomes a regular thing after that, Barry staying to work on his homework at Oliver's after walking Spice and playing sounding board for Oliver's writing.  Oliver's story is finally turning into a decent first draft and Barry's Master's thesis is nearly completed.</p><p>And Oliver's attraction to Barry is definitely growing stronger with ever comfortable, familiar, domestic evening.  They've watched movies together and Barry's fallen asleep in his guest room a few times, even heading into class once wearing one of Oliver's shirts because Oliver insisted it was fine.  It was more than fine - Barry looked damn good in Oliver's sweater...</p><p>Would it be entirely inappropriate for Oliver to kiss someone in his employ?  Probably yes.  Definitely yes... but he wanted to kiss the other man so badly...</p><p>Still, Oliver's leg was getting closer and closer to having the cast removed.  The end of week four was just around the corner...</p><hr/><p>The cast does not come off on the fourth week as Oliver hopes.  It's week five where he finally hobbles into his house after Thea drives him back home.  His leg smells funky.  Despite being washed down after the cast's removal, Oliver swears he can still smell it.  He wants a shower and, thankfully, he is now the proud owner of a teak shower bench.  It really made life so much easier...</p><p>"I'll stay here and meet your boy toy," Thea told him, "you shower."</p><p>"He's not my boy toy," Oliver objected, already hobbling towards his bedroom where the master bathroom and it's good sized walk in (hobble in) shower lived.  "You don't have to, Thea."</p><p>"Oh, but I want to.  Gotta make sure this cute college student isn't taking advantage of my big brother."  Thea smirked and that, more than anything, made Oliver worried.</p><p>"Be nice.  Spice likes him."  The dog in question was sniffing Oliver's leg in curiosity and concern.  She gently headbutted Oliver's side and licked one of his hands once she was satisfied that Oliver's leg was still in one piece.</p><p>"I'll be nice.  Wouldn't want to deprive Spice of her favorite walking buddy."  Thea called Spice over to scritch her ears.  "Seriously, I got this.  Go freshen up.  You are still a bit whiffy."</p><p>"I knew it," Oliver groaned and hobbled off.</p><p>Spice is gone with Barry by the time Oliver got out of the shower - which he did take extra long just because he didn't have to worry about water-sealing his cast anymore - and he settles beside Thea on the couch.</p><p>"So, what's the verdict?"  Oliver asked hesitantly.  His sister's opinion really did mean a lot to him, after all.</p><p>"If you don't marry him, I'm following in Tommy's footsteps and marrying him for you," Thea declared.</p><p>Oliver couldn't help it.  He started snickering.  That really shouldn't be funny... but it kind of was, really.</p><hr/><p>"So I didn't ask earlier, but how was physical therapy?" Barry asked as he sat down at the couch to open his laptop.</p><p>Oliver groaned.  "I hurt all over.  I thought this was just supposed to be for my leg.  I don't understand why my arms ache."  He was in his recliner with the feet up.  "I'm ordering pizza for dinner.  Everything else feels like too much effort."</p><p>"So, uh..."  Barry tapped his fingers along his knees.  "I um..."</p><p>Oliver peered up at Barry.  "Yeah?  Not feeling the pizza tonight?"</p><p>"No, pizza is good.  Pizza is great!"  Barry practically squeaked.  "I just, um... what days are you having you having physical therapy?  Because I, uh... I thought maybe we could go on a date.  When you're not feeling too exhausted to go out?  If that's, um... if you're interested?  Because I thought maybe... but maybe I've been misreading things and... that's fine, you don't have to..."</p><p>"Barry," Oliver interrupted, grinning widely.  "I would love to go on a date with you."</p><p>Barry perked up.  "Really?"</p><p>"Yeah."  Oliver grinned, "really."</p><p>"Can I kiss you?" Barry asked hopefully.</p><p>"I'd need to get out this chair first.  Help me up?"  Oliver was already reaching for the recliner's lever.</p><p>Barry scrambled off the couch and gave Oliver a hand up, gladly steadying him in order to kiss Oliver thoroughly.  And over on her pad, Spice watched them, wagging her tail and gnawing on her rope bone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me - *researching how long it takes to recover from a broken leg*<br/>Also Me - How does a dog walking service work anyway?  *shrug* Any way the plot requires.  That's how.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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